


15 - Emiliana Perfetti's Christmas

by Kat_Lovegood



Series: Professor Layton Advent Calendar [15]
Category: Layton Brothers: Mystery Room, Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series
Genre: Advent Calendar, Advent Calendar Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 00:28:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21918295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kat_Lovegood/pseuds/Kat_Lovegood
Relationships: Alfendi Layton & Emiliana Perfetti, Katrielle Layton & Emiliana Perfetti
Series: Professor Layton Advent Calendar [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1557985
Kudos: 7





	15 - Emiliana Perfetti's Christmas

It was already late, actually close to midnight, as Alfendi was sitting in his office at Scotland Yard, known to everyone in the agency only as the „Mystery Room“, partly because Alfendi Layton and his partner, Lucy Baker, always solved the most mysterious, baffling cases. And partly because of the reconstruction device, a one-of-a-kind machine capable of accurately displaying crime scenes if fed with right data, that was stored in a chamber just next to the office that had formerly been a broom cupboard.

Alfendi‘s office was always rather messy, and Lucy was not great at keeping order, either, so the desk was always cluttered, but on this particular evening, the room was also decorated very festively. Alfendi had never really been a fan of Christmas, but Lucy had insisted. She had also brought self-made cookies to work that she had handed to everyone that had visited their office in the last few days – even suspects! But now she was at her parents' house in Yorkshire to celebrate Christmas. And he, Alfendi Layton, was sitting in his office, doing paperwork on Christmas Eve.

The large building that was the headquarter of Scotland Yard in the middle of London was almost deserted, with only a few active officers that had the bad luck of being on duty right now sitting in the offices or the common room with the kitchenette, hoping to spend the night in peace. So Alfendi was on his own, just as he liked it. Who else would spend the night before Christmas at work, after all?

The answer, unknown to Alfendi, was Emiliana Perfetti. The young woman that was actually just as old as Alfendi, was also still in her office, or rather on the way back to her office, as she had just been down in the archive to file away some files from the past year. Emiliana wasn‘t very close to her family, as she was an only child and her father had passed away about three years ago. She had never been particularly close to her mother, anyway, and as she didn‘t believe in god she didn‘t see a point in celebrating Christmas. 

She always told herself that she would enjoy the quiet hours that gave her time to review the cases of the past year, mainly to write a few scientific essays on the psychology of most interesting criminals she had encountered in the past twelve months. But she couldn‘t deny that she was feeling just a little lonely right now, wandering down the cold and empty corridors of the large building.

Emiliana suddenly stopped in her tracks, as she saw light down a corridor, from the serious crime division, no less. Maybe some interesting case she could distract herself with from these gloomy, irrational thoughts? Surely her colleagues would be most grateful for any sort of help they could get right now, with half the stuff out of the city for the holidays.

She slowly approached the slightly open door of the Mystery Room, feeling even a little bit disappointed as she only saw Inspector Layton sitting at his desk, engrossed in some old files. She debated to leave him there, but what harm could it do to ask him whether he would like a cup of tea? And maybe, just maybe, he would be grateful for her company as well.

At any rate, Alfendi was interesting. Emiliana had known him for a while, as she, in her position as a certified psychologist and criminal profiler, had been asked to evaluate him after the Forbodium incident a few years ago. In a way, Alfendi had to thank her (and Barton, of course) for being able to keep his position. She was sure of her judgement, and she knew that she didn‘t need to be scared of Alfendi. Noone needed to, really. Unless they were a murderer, of course. 

The young man in front of her wasn‘t really as antisocial as he portrayed himself, she deduced, he was simply afraid of rejection, of being hurt, and he wasn‘t quite calm enough to keep rational, cold and aloof at any time, so he lashed out at anyone who wanted to help him, to be his friend. Fear of bonding, fear of emotional loss. But deep down, he was a very decent human being. That‘s why his other persona existed, Emiliana assumed, because the additional shock of the Forbodium incident had shown him that behaving anti-social wouldn‘t keep him safe. Because he was lonely. And because he felt guilty, perhaps.

„Can I help you?“, Alfendi asked as he looked up from his papers. Emiliana had been so lost in thought that she hadn‘t even noticed that she was staring at him for what had probably been a good minute.

„Um, I saw the light from your office, and I wondered whether you… might want to have some tea?“, she stammered, blushing a bit.

„Oh, thank you. Yes, maybe it‘s time to take a break. Or to go home, it‘s almost midnight...“, he answered, getting up from his chair.

„Yes, I suppose you are right. I‘m sure you have quite a few things planned for tomorrow with your sister?“, Emiliana tried to keep up the conversation.

„No, not really. Well, she invited me, of course, but I didn‘t really plan to go“, he answered, rather awkwardly. „And you, don‘t you have any plans?“

„No, I haven‘t, I‘m afraid. I don‘t have much family, and I‘m not religious, either, so I thought… well, I had actually planned to spend the holidays here, mostly. Or maybe just at home, reading“, the girl answered.

„Isn‘t that, you know, a bit lonely?“, Alfendi asked her.

„Well, I don‘t believe you have any right to talk“, Emiliana countered. „Why don‘t you want to spend the holidays with Katrielle? I‘m sure you would have a very nice time...“

„Oh, so she was right. You do like her“, Alfendi smirked, his hair suddenly turning a brighter shade of crimson.

„… I never said that“, Emiliana tried to defend herself.

„But you meant it. And you know what, I think you are right. There‘s no good in the three of us spending the holidays all by ourselves, is there. It‘s boring, don‘t you think?“

„Maybe...“, Emiliana answered, getting more and more flustered.

„You know what? I will go and visit her… If you will come, too! I think that could be rather… interesting“, the Inspector smirked.

Emiliana didn‘t know why, but she excepted. Because she was lonely, because she actually really did like Katrielle, or maybe just because she was curious about how she and her brother would interact. Yes, that was it, just a little bit of intellectual curiosity. And when she stood in front of the green door of Layton‘s Detective Agency, a hastily bought box of fresh cookies and a bottle of wine neatly wrapped as gifts, she wasn‘t nervous at all.

And she certainly didn‘t smile when Katrielle Layton opened the door and cheerily said:

„Merry Christmas, Emiliana!“


End file.
